Saturday 21st.

Fine day. At home. Afternoon ride. Evening at the Mansion.

My work upon the letters went on pretty briskly this morning and I begin to perceive
the end of the undertaking. Mrs. Greenleaf has furnished me a valuable stock with
which to fill up a long interval.1 I read also some of Menzel, always a lively and often a just writer.

After dinner, Tacitus b. 4. s 60–70, went out to take a ride accompanied by my father.
Went down to the farms and from thence through the cross roads to Milton Hill. The
evening was beautiful and I enjoyed it much. Tea at my father’s and evening. Nothing
material.

1. During the years 1784–1788 AA was with JA in Europe. Her letters in that period were
written mostly to her sisters, Mary Smith Cranch and Elizabeth Smith Shaw, and to
her niece Lucy Cranch, later Mrs. John Greenleaf. The letters in Mrs. Greenleaf’s
possession, to her mother and to herself, were those she allowed CFA to copy for publication
in the volume he had in preparation (AA, Letters, ed. CFA, 1840; entry for 12 Aug., above). In that volume, p. 199–395 would be given in large part to these letters,
supplemented by a lesser number to Mrs. Shaw, lent by her daughter, Abigail Adams
Shaw (Mrs. Joseph Barlow Felt). On the later history of the collections of AA’s letters,
see Adams Family Correspondence, 1:xxx.

Docno: ADMS-13-08-02-0002-0009-0022

Author: CFA

Date: 1839-09-22

Sunday 22d.

Fine day. Exercises as usual. Evening, family with us. J.Q.A. 6 years.

I devoted my morning to the usual course of occupation with my daughter and only changed
the subject for my superfluous time from the study of Tucker which turns out unprofitable
to that of Herschel’s Astronomy.

Attended divine service and heard Mr. Newel of Cambridge preach from 1 Corinthians
13. 9.10.11. “For we know in part and we prophesy in part; But when that which is
perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child,
I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became
a man, I put away childish things.” And in the Afternoon from Genesis 2. 15. “And
the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden to dress it and to keep it.”
Mr. Newell is very sensible but he wants energy. His manner gives to his matter an
inertness which appears effeminate. I think Menzel is right in one particular that
there must be something wrong in the forms of Protestant worship which turn off so
much of the attention from the subject to the Preacher.

Read a Sermon in the English Preacher by Mr. Balguy. Psalm 97. 1, “The Lord reigneth,
let the earth rejoice.” The active government of God a certain and joyful truth. Menzel
wonders at the fact of the ordi• { 298 } nary character of all the sermons that have been the result of so many centuries of
weekly preaching. The reason is that the text is better than any amplification of
it. The sole useful end of a sermon is exhortation and that must be done much within
the circle of old truths.

In the evening the family were all with us and Mr. Degrand and E. P. Greenleaf. After
they had all gone I read the news by the British Queen which looks badly. We must
be rapidly nearing a crisis in the United States.1

My boy John this day six years old. How much have I to be thankful for in him and
how much cause to pray for his continued progress in mental and moral and physical
health!

1. The British Queen docked at New York on the 20th, bringing news of declines in the value of securities,
of rising interest rates, and of a state of crisis in the money market (Boston Courier, 23 Sept., p. 3, cols. 2–4).